When it comes to traffic generation strategies, it is very important that you choose the right strategies to focus on, so that your time and money are not wasted. Basically, there are three ways to get traffic: you can create it, buy it, or borrow it. Creating it essentially means creating content to drive traffic to your websites. Buying it means buying paid traffic through different sources, and borrowing traffic means using other people’s resources, like their lists and their traffic, to drive visitors to your sites. This article will focus on 5 of the most effective traffic generation strategies that you can use to attract hordes of traffic.

Strategy #1: Pay Per Click Advertising

Pay per click advertising is a very profitable method of advertising where you only pay for your ads when they are clicked. Hence the name “pay per click”. Examples of such systems include Google AdWords and MSN Adcenter, which has now been combined with Yahoo to compete with Google. Google’s system has the most traffic, but MSN’s advertising costs are currently lower because it has less competition. Using both systems will maximize your traffic.

Strategy #2: Article Marketing

This strategy involves writing or outsourcing articles and posting them to article directories like EzineArticles or other sites where your content can be distributed. These can include blogs, general content sites, or content hubs like Squidoo and Hub Pages. The ultimate goal is to get your content widely distributed on the web, increasing your traffic and brand awareness among consumers in your market.

Strategy #3: Ad Swaps

Ad trading is a method where you trade ads with other marketers or webmasters. Traditionally, ad exchanges involve exchanging email advertisements with other email marketers. In other words, you promote a fellow marketer’s offer to your list, in exchange for them promoting your offer to their list. You can promote other people’s signup pages (also known as name squeeze pages) to quickly build other people’s lists. However, ad exchanges may also include the exchange of Twitter tweets, Facebook page posts, banner ads, download page advertisements, etc.

Strategy #4: Solo Ads

Sending an email to a receptive list of subscribers is one of the fastest and easiest ways to get great results. One way to do this, in addition to doing ad exchanges with other listing sellers, is to buy solo ads. An individual ad is an email promotion that only promotes your offer and nothing else is promoted in the email. This ensures that the email gives you the best response possible. You can find newsletters to purchase individual ads by checking the Ezine Directory, which contains lists of ezines and ezines, or simply by subscribing to as many quality email lists in your market as possible. Then approach these list owners by asking if they sell email ads.

Strategy #5: Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads can still be considered relatively new to the online advertising landscape and not as established as Google’s AdWords system, however they are gaining traction in the internet marketing world. Ad costs are still relatively low, and the thing about Facebook ads is that you can target the demographics of your market, like their interests, what movies they watch, what music they listen to, etc. This isn’t possible with other pay-per-click advertising systems, and it’s what makes Facebook advertising so powerful if done right.

There you have it, 5 of the best traffic generation strategies you can use right away to start driving traffic to your offers. You no longer have excuses for not starting to see visitors to your site. It’s time to step on it and take action!